Antennas that emit electronically steered beams are known in the art as “phased array antennas.” Such antennas are used worldwide in a wide variety of commercial and radar applications. They typically are produced from many small radiating elements that are individually phase controlled by high-frequency integrated circuits to form a beam in the far field of the antenna.
In a manner similar to other devices, integrated circuits that use high frequency signals (e.g., 10 GHz and larger) generally require heat sinks to manage their thermal profile. Undesirably, heat sinks can cause other problems that interfere with accurate formation of the beam.